You Are What You Tweet

As the discussion leader, I'll be focusing on driving the conversation among members of team 2 rather than posting my own response to this week's prompt.

However, as my teammates work to complete their social media privacy checklists, I do wish to add some informal input on the topic.

Over the last two years, I've given a presentation to several student groups at Marist College (resident assistants, emerging leaders, career courses, student athletes, etc.) called "You Are What You Tweet." During this session (which can take the form of a training, a lecture, a discussion or an interactive workshop), I talk about common college student social media blunders, the concept of a "digitally projected self," and how what we post on social media can affect how others (including employers) view us. The common lesson from these chats: In social media, "private" can easily be made public.

Knowing that your privacy is always at risk on social networks, even when you take caution to safeguard an account, is an important reality that I believe all should accept. It's one of the many reasons that social networking policies should exist for employers, but I also encourage that organizations - colleges, workplaces, etc. - be proactive rather than reactive regarding social media training and education.

To illustrate my point (and, perhaps, to help you as you participate in this week's discussion), here are some articles that discuss social networking privacy issues:

• What Does the Internet Know About You? "Now employers can fire workers for expressing opinions they don’t like, strangers can stalk you with mobile apps and college administrators can judge the quality of applicants by the number of drinking photos posted to their account." via Mashable.
• That's an Order! 10 Facebook Privacy Tips from the Marines. My brother is a member of the U.S. Marine Corps, and I've seen first hand some of the precautions he must take to safeguard his privacy, especially while oversees on missions. The tips in this article echo some of the things we learned in discussion module featured in this week's discussion prompt. via TechNewsDaily.



On social networks, even private information can
become public. Image via Creative Commons.

• Your Business' Security Is Only as Strong As Your Employee's Weakest Tweet. We can't eliminate social media risks completely, but companies can certainly work to manage them. This includes training that covers privacy settings, which 25 percent of Facebook users don't bother using. via the Huffington Post.

My "You Are What You Tweet" presentation also covers identity construction via social media, but we won't get into that today. Although, I did a quick Google search using the title of my program, and it seems I'm not alone in using that catchy play-on-words - looks like it's back to the "workshop title" drawing board for me.